Jack Lear was first performed in Scarborough in 2008 and now more than a decade later, this exceptional piece of theatre has been revived and relocated to the banks of the river Humber, where it played earlier this year in Hull before transferring to the Northern Stage.
This gritty reworking of Shakespeare's King Lear, tells the story of an old fisherman who decides to divide up his remaining property by giving each of his three daughters an equal share. When the youngest and most favourable daughter Victoria, falls out with her father, Jack, he gives her share to the other two, who are cold and heartless. What comes next is a two hour tragedy about greed, family and power, and the extremes people will go to get that.
This production is directed by Barrie Rutter, who has put a local twist on the story by setting it in Hull, as opposed to Scarborough. This change of place has impacted in every part of the production and gives the piece a lot character and passion and feels like it has come right from the heart. Rutter himself plays the title role of Jack Lear and he performs it with great amounts of passion and determination. His character goes from being quite harsh and bitter, to being innocent and gentle and Rutter emphasised this change superbly.
Jack's three daughters, Morgana, Freda and Victoria, were played by Nicola Sanderson, Sarah Naughton and Olivia Onyehara respectively. Sanderson and Naughton's portrayal of the cold and egotistic sisters was severe and intense and really made the audience dislike them more and more as the play went on. However, they did bring a lot of humour to the piece which was a welcome addition and was extremely entertaining. Contrasted with them, was Onyehara as Victoria who was the complete opposite of what the other two sisters stood for. Her performance was gentle and delicate and made the audience sympathise with the situation she and Jack were put in by Morgana and Freda.
Two other notable parts of the production would be the set design by Kate Urwin as it perfectly reflects the fishing and marine theme of the play as well as the acapella folk music by Eliza Carthy which accompanied the dialogue and gave the story a great deal of individuality and made the audience connect on a personal level with what was going on onstage.
Despite this, I did feel like the play was rushed, especially at the end when Freda and Morgana fight it out with viking longswords which is an odd choice considering this is supposedly set in a modern day world and not in Shakespeare's time.
Overall, Jack Lear has some incredible moments such as folk music by Eliza Carthy and Barrie Rutter's standout performance as Jack Lear, which proves that this revival is a remarkable piece of theatre.
Jack Lear is currently playing at the Northern Stage until the 16th February 2019. More information about the show including how to buy tickets, can be found here.
